Weaponless War At the end of a person’s life, when death knocks upon the doors of heaven and hell, every individual has an epiphany. What if time could fast-forward itself to grasp the understanding of life, of which is comprehended only in the epiphany at the end of each person’s time? An ongoing skirmish occurs in every man’s mentality, victory, never found, until death is upon the individual. Ernest Hemmingway’s main character, Robert Jordan, in his novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls, portrays his internal war with death through imagery, personification, and symbolism.

When at war in a foreign country, images of recollections are the thread that attaches an entity to authentic life and contentment, as does the same coping mechanism when one bathes in the river of Styx in Greek Mythology. Memories deluge throughout Robert Jordan’s mind as he opens his essence to Maria, confiding himself in her, elucidating his father’s warfare with bereavement and his catastrophic failure “… to avoid being tortured” Maria states in full understanding with a connotation of empathy (67). Imagining a world with no fear, Robert Jordan lives his life in the utopia of fearlessness.

Pilar questions Robert Jordan in his personal psychological utopia perplexing his concerns of fatality; he lives life anesthetized from trepidation of naught (91). In the mind of Robert Jordan, a labyrinth of isolation dwells seeming indefinite and unscathed (264). Robert Jordan is an unfounded island; Maria is the captain of the ship that searches for the impracticable, resulting in the upmost cliche termination. Maria uncovers things of which not even Robert Jordan knew of himself, including the characteristics that enclose his faults.

Nerves can compose or rupture an entire human being in war; Pilar questions Robert Jordan’s nerves in regards to the bridge annihilation. He defensively retorts to Pilar confirming his nerves were all right and subtly commanded her to go to the Gredos (149). Painting a picture of catastrophe in the mind of a soldier as a winter storm approaches in the month of June, “… the gray becoming uniform so that is was a soft and heavy; the gray now cutting off the tops of the mountains” (177). Robert Jordan knows no different from seeing life in shades of gray, adjacent to ordinary black and white.

With one of the five senses every human attains crippled, life is seen in a world of innovative perspectives enhancing every moment of life in a vigilant approach. If every instant of life is enhanced, in a parallel structure, as is every moment of death. Robert Jordan smells death about him; death walks to him and warns him of the outcomes (253). War has a way of bringing out the pits of people, no doubt, but once one looks past the worst, a new stratum of every individual is peeled back illuminating every emotion.

The human mind is a cave, Hemmingway portrays Pablo’s cave, where his band reports in a homely – manner, as to “…this cave an insane asylum” defining the mental state of every individual fighting in the cold, brutal war (224). Robert Jordan finds himself lost surrounded by his mind of a labyrinth, comparing existence to a merry – go – round (225). He feels as if life repeats itself, often as many humans articulate; history repeats itself. To General Golz, all that matters is the bridge is blown, that the enemy cannot cross with reinforcements and supplementary weaponry (151).

If the Fascists already recognize the operation, what is there to work for in the eyes of the soldiers? The bridge is demise for countless of Pablo’s band members, all know it is, yet they ensue to toil at the annihilation assignment. Perhaps most brutal, atrocious, appalling, horrendous war of all is never fought with armaments; they rest unscathed, and bloods is by no means shed from the soldiers, nor are any operation tactics in attendance. Contained by the mind of Robert Jordan, life doubles as the protagonist as well as the antagonist mutually skirmishing for the identical termination.

As time plays on, Robert Jordan views his epiphany of life lying on the forest floor subsequent to his horse killed via the foe. In a world of cliche finales, Robert Jordan is most heroic and accepts his trounce of war internally. He collapses devoid of creed, for it is a pillow for the plummet of every interior psychological war, and for a concise instant understands something of which no existing soul will by no means seize; life. Work Cited Hemmingway, Ernest. For Whom the Bell Tolls. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print.

Author: Brandon Johnson

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